Here are the big questions for investors and markets this week. Will investors like what they hear from President Trump? Mr Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday (it’s not officially a State of the Union) and with US equities in record territory, investors are very much focused on tax reform and other fiscal measures. Here’s where the Trump trade — based on the […]
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Stempel | NEW YORK NEW YORK Billionaire Warren Buffett, whose stock picks over several decades have enriched generations of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) shareholders, delivered a black eye to the investment industry on Saturday, urging ordinary investors to buy plain-vanilla index funds. “When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap […]
Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com, Last month we noted that Hillary Clinton is looking to start her own “fabulous” TV show in an effort to remain relevant following a disastrous Presidential election loss in 2016. The show, according to an insider, would be “completely controlled” and will likely focus on undermining the efforts of President Donald Trump, while whipping her supporters into a frenzy. Now, in […]
By Joseph Sipalan and Noah Browning | KUALA LUMPUR/DUBAI KUALA LUMPUR/DUBAI Malaysia welcomed Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Sunday for the start of a rare, month-long Asian tour, where the monarch will build ties and seek to draw more investments to the oil-rich gulf nation. The visit is the first by a Saudi king to Malaysia in more than a decade, as the Arab nation courts Asian […]
In a small office on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the same Paris street as the Élysée Palace, the secretive “ideas and images” online unit of France’s far-right National Front was planning its next attack. As the battle for the presidency hotted up, signs that Emmanuel Macron, the centrist presidential contender, was polling strongly raised the possibility that he would make the second round vote to face FN […]
Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) could encourage other Gulf countries to list their oil assets, a leading regional economist said, but the oil giant must clear uncertainties over taxation, OPEC policy and ownership of crude. Nasser Saidi, a former economy minister of Lebanon, told Dubai Eye Radio in an interview that Aramco has to address how the company will separate its assets and liabilities from those […]
By Joseph Sipalan and Angie Teo | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia on Sunday declared its international airport a “safe zone” after completing a sweep of the terminal where the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was assaulted with a deadly chemical last week. Kim Jong Nam died on Feb. 13 after being smothered at the airport’s budget terminal with VX nerve agent, classified […]
At least 28 people were injured on Saturday evening after a pickup plowed into a crowd during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, police said according to WDSU. New Orleans Police Department spokeswoman Ambria Washington says that “initial reports show so far that about a dozen people are in critical condition.” She says that number could increase as the investigation continues. #mardigras Video Of Aftermath […]
In the first tangible step toward delivering on Trump’s campaign promise to halt unauthorized immigration from Mexico, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday released plans for picking vendors for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, issuing a preliminary request for proposals saying it plans to release a formal solicitation around March 6 “for the design and build of several prototype wall structures in the vicinity […]
Akamai has published its Q4 2016 State of the Internet/Security report As always, an interesting read and an opportunity to look at trends in attacks. Not all trends are up and to the right. As the report states, Q4 2016 was “the third consecutive quarter where we noticed a decrease in the number of attack triggers”. Still, “the overall 2016 attack count was up 4% as compared […]
Microsoft has released new test builds of Windows 10 Creators Update for PC and Mobile testers that provide lots of fixes to the nearly finalized operating-system release. On February 24, Microsoft rolled out to Fast Ring testers Windows 10 Build 15042 for PC and 15043 for Windows Phones. The PC build doesn’t work on 32-bit/x86 PCs, Microsoft officials said, as a result of a bug; it’s for […]
French authorities have made yet another monumental error in judgment after arresting Marine Le Pen’s chief of staff and bodyguard for questioning over alleged misuse of public funds to pay parliamentary assistants – the equivalent of a jaywalking ticket in terms of public opinion. By making le mountain out of le molehill, this latest debacle by French authorities is the most recent in a long list of backfired attempts to […]
Suppliers to Tesla and other electric carmakers are scrambling to secure shipments of the key battery material cobalt after a group of hedge funds amassed a large stockpile of the scarce metal. In a bold wager on higher prices, half a dozen funds, including Swiss-based Pala Investments and China’s Shanghai Chaos, have purchased and stored an estimated 6,000 tonnes of cobalt, worth as much as $280m, according […]
Thinking about switching to AT&T or upgrading your current phone? Right now may be a good time. Starting Friday, AT&T is offering the iPhone 7, Galaxy S7, and LG G5 on a buy one, get one free promotion. According to the press release, new and existing customers who sign up for an AT&T Next or AT&T Next Every Year plan are eligible for a free smartphone through […]
Sign up to receive Authers’ Note daily by email here Despite appearances to the contrary, the Trump trade may be moving into reverse as the president’s maiden State of the Union address approaches. The overall level of the stock market is, of course, at fresh records. But the pattern within it is shifting again. The end of the week saw sharp falls for almost all equity markets […]
Submitted by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) via SHTFPlan.com, As of this writing a tremendous number of things are happening in North Korea and Russia. Although these are not events that seem momentous, they are quite profound when taken into consideration with the grand scheme: the worldwide plot to form a state of global governance. These […]
BEIJING A youth named by China as the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, but reviled as a fake by many Tibetans, has pledged to uphold the “glorious tradition” of patriotism that holders of his position have followed, state news agency Xinhua said. Although officially atheist, China selected Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in a drive to win the hearts and minds of Tibetans. […]
When the National Security Agency (NSA) introduced Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) in 2002 as an approved cryptographic security algorithm it was practically unbreakable. That was a long, long time ago. True, SHA-1 security has been broken, but then we’ve been planning on it being busted for years now. Getty Images/iStockphoto Since then, SHA-1 has been used in numerous secure applications. These include web Secure-Socket Layer (SSL) […]
By By Rozanna Latiff and Emily Chow, Reuters Feb 24, 2017 at 7:56 pm | Print View KUALA LUMPUR — VX nerve agent, a chemical the United Nations classifies as a weapon of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a bizarre murder in Malaysia last week, police said on Friday. Kim Jong Nam was killed on […]
By Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The longest-serving U.S. diplomat warned against isolationism, protectionism and Russian aggression on Friday in a retirement speech implicitly criticizing some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies even as he urged officials to serve the White House loyally. Ambassador Dan Fried argued that since becoming a world power over a century ago, the United States had largely pursued an open, rules-based world, […]
By Jonathan Landay | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON While President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States must expand its nuclear arsenal, many experts say U.S. nuclear forces are unrivalled and will remain so as they undergo a modernization programme that could cost more than $1 trillion. In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Trump said the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.” He pledged […]
Every year, Inrix releases its Global Traffic Scorecard, which ranks congestion on roads in 1,064 cities in 38 countries. And every year the report tells urban commuters what they already know—traffic sucks and is getting worse. But at least Inrix’s Global Traffic Scorecard uses data—500TB from 300 million sources covering over 5 million miles of road—to let us know exactly how much it sucks. And […]
By Caroline Humer | NEW YORK NEW YORK The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents insurers in every state, Cigna Corp and Humana Inc said on Friday they would attend a meeting between the health insurance industry and President Donald Trump on Monday. Cigna’s chief executive officer, David Cordani, and Humana CEO Bruce Broussard will attend, spokesmen for both companies said. Bloomberg reported earlier on Friday […]
About a month ago, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz decided to ‘take a stand’ in defiance of Trump’s immigration executive order and penned a message to the world vowing, among other things, to hire 10,000 refugees over the next 5 years and “build bridges, not walls, with Mexico”. Here are some excerpts from the politically charged message drafted by Schultz with “deep concern and a heavy heart”: I […]
